In recent years, various electronic means for image formation have been developed and compared with silver halide photographic materials in image quality. It follows that the high image quality and handiness of the latter have been appreciated anew and use of a silver halide color light-sensitive material as not only a printing material for photography but a hard copy material of an electron image has now been studied. Under such a situation, intensive studies have been conducted to accentuate the merits of silver halide light-sensitive materials by, for example, further improving image quality in sharpness or color reproducibility and making the processing simpler and more rapid. As for simpleness and rapidness of processing, the advancement of a simple and rapid development system represented by a mini-laboratory system has made it possible to provide prints of extremely high image quality in a shorter time at a less cost with relative ease. Further, use of a silver halide emulsion having a high silver chloride content (hereinafter referred to as a high silver chloride emulsion) has contributed to a great reduction in processing time and an improvement on processing dependence of image quality.
Known means for improving sharpness of a silver halide light-sensitive material having a reflective support include (1) anti-irradiation by using a water-soluble dye, (2) antihalation by using colloidal silver, a mordant dye, dye solid fine particles, etc., (3) prevention of light piping toward a support by increasing the content of a white pigment in the resin layer laminated on a paper support or by coating a support with a gelatin dispersion of a white pigment.
Means (1) and (2) not only give rise to color remaining after processing especially in the case of rapid processing but adversely affect light-sensitive layers during storage. As for means (3), U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,002 teaches that sharpness can greatly be improved by coating a support with a gelatin dispersion of a white pigment, and JP-A-3-156452 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") suggests great improvement in sharpness by increasing the white pigment content in the laminating polyolefin on a support. However, a white pigment-containing gelatin coat is not practically useful because it deteriorates preservability of a light-sensitive material, and the resultant increase in film thickness brings such problems as increased dependence of image quality on processing, loss of suitability to rapid processing due to retardation of drying, and increase in cost. The increased white pigment content in the polyolefin layer also results in an increase in cost.
Therefore, means (1), i.e., use of a water-soluble dye, is generally adopted to improve sharpness for its economical advantage and relatively small adverse influence. Watersoluble dyes described in EP-A2-337490, pp. 27-76 are generally employed. Among them, oxonol dyes and cyanine dyes are used the most for their relatively small color remaining after processing. Even with these dyes, however, color remaining after processing becomes noticeable with the increasing amount added particularly in a processing system using a reduced processing time, so that it has been impossible to use them in a sufficient amount for assuring satisfactory sharpness.
In addition, if the oxonol dye is used in an increased amount so that the light-sensitive material may have a reflection density of not less than 0.3 at 550 nm, an appreciable amount of the dye will be dissolved into a processing solution and accumulated therein. It follows that the accumulated dye in the processing solution adversely affects the development of a light-sensitive material in continuous processing especially causing a great reduction in magenta density.
It turned out that the above problem is conspicuous with a color light-sensitive material containing a high silver chloride emulsion and in a rapid processing system, and is more conspicuous when a light-sensitive material is exposed at a high illumination for a short time using such a light source as a laser.